Juror opens up about conviction of Northern California man for 2017 murder featured in Netflix’s ‘Murder Mountain’
Jury foreman Dean Troutte said he wasn’t sure what Harrison was thinking, but he expressed confidence the jury made the right […]
Who was Alderpoint resident Zachary Harrison aiming at when he shot and killed 58-year-old Robert Holtsclaw?
Eyewitness Tory Hennings said he saw Harrison aim at him, prompting him to duck behind Holtsclaw as Harrison fired. Jury foreman Dean Troutte said he wasn’t sure what Harrison was thinking, but he expressed confidence the jury made the right decision Wednesday when it convicted Harrison of first-degree murder.
“We found him to be a very calculating person,” Troutte said Friday. “He was very street-smart.”
Harrison faces life in prison for the Sept. 23, 2017 murder. The jury also found the 29-year-old guilty of a special allegation of personally discharging a firearm. Sentencing is set for Oct. 30.
At first, Troutte said, some jurors were unhappy with the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office investigation of the initial crime. While law enforcement recovered 30-30 copper rifle rounds from Harrison’s trailer, the same type of ammunition used to kill Holtsclaw, investigators didn’t find DNA evidence and never recovered the murder weapon. Detectives didn’t search a house Harrison may have entered or interview the people that lived there, Troutte said.
Troutte said Harrison’s motive remained unclear. Harrison told investigators that Holtsclaw had raped him, an accusation Troutte said the jury saw no evidence to support. Harrison also suggested Hennings might be trying to frame him to steal money from the marijuana grow they ran together, or to prevent retaliation from Harrison after sleeping with his girlfriend.
When the 12 jurors began deliberating, only three had already decided Harrison was guilty, Troutte said. One believed Harrison was not guilty, and the rest were unsure.
Over about two days of deliberation, most jurors decided to convict Harrison. The “not guilty” juror slowly joined the majority, Troutte said.
“We weren’t trying to get her to a ‘guilty’ to get out of there,” Troutte said. “At every step, we made sure that we would see what we needed to see and hear what we needed to hear.”
In tapes of Harrison’s interview made available to the jury, Harrison is never heard explicitly saying, “I didn’t shoot Bob.”
“We thought that a normal, reasonable person, when asked why he would shoot somebody, would say, ‘I didn’t shoot him,’” Troutte said.
“Right at the end of that, he says, ‘I don’t even think I was there.’ Well, you already said you were there, we got people who say you were there. That was the big ticket,” Troutte added.
Troutte said he hadn’t heard anything about the case before entering the courtroom, nor seen the 2018 television series “Murder Mountain,” available on Netflix, that depicts Harrison’s capture after nine months as a fugitive.
An expert witness called by defense attorney Brie Bennett testified Harrison’s bullets were common among hunters — which struck Troutte, who professed familiarity with firearms, as incorrect.
Bennett tried to poke holes in the prosecution’s narrative, but Harrison’s driving out of the area an hour after Holtsclaw’s death just as sheriff’s deputies arrived helped seal the jury’s belief in his guilt, Troutte said.
Although evidence showed Harrison not to be a regular hunter, he invited Hennings on a hunting trip the day before the incident. The evidence of premeditation, Troutte said, is why he won’t lose any sleep over a life sentence.
“As long as he’s not back on the streets, even if he’s an old man… I’m safe with life imprisonment,” Troutte said. “I think he’s obviously shown that he can kill. Maybe he’ll get some help in prison and change his ways.”
The jury promptly exited court after Wednesday’s verdict, but Troutte did stop to speak to Holtsclaw’s loved ones, who thanked him for the decision. Later, when Troutte spoke to prosecutor Adrian Kamada, he wept.
“I wanted to tell (Holtsclaw’s loved ones), ‘I know as a jury we couldn’t bring Bob back, but I hope that at least we got some measure of justice for you and Bob.’ I wanted to say that to them, but I was so emotional it didn’t come out.”
“I think that’s why we do this whole thing as a jury,” he added. “That’s what this is all about.”
Shomik Mukherjee can be reached at 707-441-0504.